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Four people have been arrested after a British businessman was shot dead on holiday in Argentina.
Matthew Gibbard, 50, a businessman from Northamptonshire, was named as the victim after a shooting involving a robbery gang in Buenos Aires.During the robbery outside a luxury hotel, a second British man - his 28-year-old stepson Stefan Zone - was injured after also being shot.The tourists were targeted by two men on a motorbike on Saturday morning in an attack caught on CCTV.Image:The shooting happened outside a luxury hotel in Buenos AiresOfficials said the holidaymakers were shot in a struggle as they attempted to stop the robbers stealing their belongings.Both were taken to hospital after the attack near the entrance to the Faena Art Hotel in the Puerto Madero district.Mr Gibbard had been shot in the chest and later died, while his stepson suffered a thigh injury.Image:A white circle around a bullet hole on a wall at the hotelPolice believe the motorbike robbers were supported by accomplices in a vehicle and are looking into whether the victims were followed to the hotel from the airport, according to local media.Officers have identified suspects but have arrested four members of the wider gang suspected of co-ordinating the crime.Gabriel Berard, of Buenos Aires police, told reporters: "It's not the first thing they have done here in the city of Buenos Aires.
We already managed to identity the actors and we are working on their arrest."Deputy chief of government of Buenos Aires, Diego Santilli, said the police had carried out 18 raids in the investigation.He tweeted: "What happened on Saturday was an atrocious event and these criminals are murderers.
My sincerest condolences to the family of Matthew Charles Gibbard."Image:Police at the scene of the incident in the Argentinian capitalMr Gibbard was a director of a firm in Northamptonshire called Tingdene which makes holiday homes and lodges.Fellow manufacturer Omar Park Homes sent their condolences on Twitter to Tingdene staff.In a statement, the hotel said: "Faena Hotel Buenos Aires is deeply saddened by the incident which took place in the vicinity of the hotel."We express our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims.
Faena Hotel Buenos Aires is working with the authorities and providing our full support."A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are supporting the family of two British men following an incident in Buenos Aires, and are in contact with the local authorities there."Image:The victims were taken to hospital where Matthew Gibbard later diedMore than 111,000 British nationals visited Argentina in 2018, according to the Foreign Office, which said most visits are "trouble-free".But tourists are warned to be alert to street crime, including armed robberies, and advised to hand over cash and valuables without resistance.Travel safety expert Lloyd Figgins told Sky News: "Crime rates in Argentina are actually rising.
Where the murder rate has actually dropped over the last 12 months, 300 more violent crimes have occurred in Argentina in just one year."And what we're seeing is that criminals are actually targeting specific things, particularly passports, money and documents that are going to be of value to them."He added: "It is concerning because criminals are becoming a lot more organised."And we're starting to see they are having insiders working for airlines, where they are actually getting the manifest of a particular flight in order they can see who the business class travellers are, where they might be staying, and then targeting their vehicle from the moment they leave the airport, and knowing exactly which hotel they are going to."That in itself creates a choke point that makes it very easy for the criminals to target people."In the last year, a Swedish tourist was shot in the leg while in the San Telmo region of the capital, and doctors had to amputate.Weeks later a Canadian man was stabbed in an attempted robbery for his mobile phone.
A World
Four arrested after British man shot dead in Argentina robbery
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